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Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Named Passenger Trains of the New York Central Railroad:

  • 20th Century Limited

  • History


    "The Most Famous Train In The World" (1912 NYC ad)
    Inaugurated on June 17, 1902 by patent medicine salesman turned passenger agent George Henry Daniels, the train offered a barbershop and secretarial services.[6] The train arrived in Chicago three minutes ahead of schedule; the schedule was twenty hours, four hours less than before. The New York Times report laid great stress on the routine nature of the trip, with no special procedures being followed and no extra efforts being made to break records. It stated that there "...was no excitement along the way," and quoted a railroad official's claim "...it is a perfectly practical run and will be continued," and engineer William Gates maintaining "This schedule can be made without any difficulty. I can do it every time, barring accidents."[6]
    The schedule dropped to 18 hours in June 1905, the same month that the train was wrecked (June 21, 1905) on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway line at Mentor, Ohio. It reverted to 20 hours in 1912 and was unchanged until 1932. In 1935 it dropped to 16 hours, 30 minutes, then to 16 hours on June 15, 1938, when lightweight cars took over.

    20th Century Limited pulled by Commodore Vanderbilt departing Chicago's LaSalle Street station, 1935
    In the 1920s the New York-Chicago fare was $32.70 plus the extra fare of $9.60, plus the Pullman charge (e.g. $9 for a lower berth), for a total of $51.30. For that one got a bed closed off from the aisle by curtains; a compartment to oneself would cost more. In 1928, the peak year, the train earned revenue of $10 million and was believed to be the most profitable train in the world.[7]
    Shortly after the announcement of the fluorescent lamp, the cars of the 20th Century Limited were lit with this new type of lamp.[8]

    Cover carried in the RPO of the first streamlined New York-Chicago run, June 15, 1938

    A section of one of the famous red carpets, next to the observation car "Hickory Creek". The 20th Century Limited originally departed New York City from the right-hand side of this platform.

    In Grand Central Terminal
    In 1938 industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss was commissioned by the New York Central to design streamlined train sets in Art Deco style, with the locomotive and passenger cars rendered in blues and grays (the colors of NYC). The streamlined sets were inaugurated on June 15, 1938. His design was probably the most famous American passenger train.[6] Like many express passenger trains through the mid-1960s, the 20th Century Limited carried an East Division (E.D.) Railway Post Office (R.P.O.) car operated by the Railway Mail Service (RMS) of the United States Post Office Department which was staffed by USPOD clerks as a "fast mail" on each of its daily runs.[9] The mails received by, postmarked, processed, sorted, and dispatched from the 20th Century Limited 's RPOs were either canceled or backstamped (as appropriate) during the trip by hand applied circular date stamps (CDS) reading "N.Y. & CHI. R.P.O. E.D. 20TH CEN.LTD." and the train's number: "25" (NY-CHI) or "26" (CHI-NY).
    In 1945 EMD diesel-electrics replaced steam, and a new diesel-electric-powered trainset was commissioned. The replacement was inaugurated by General Dwight D. Eisenhower in September 1948. This set was featured in postwar films such as North by Northwest and The Band Wagon.
    For much of its history before 1957, the all-Pullman train made station stops only at GCT andHarmon for New York–area passengers and LaSalle Street Station and Englewood for Chicago-area passengers. These traveled in as many as seven sections, of which the first was named The Advance 20th Century Limited.[6] By the late 1950s the train was in decline. On December 2, 1967, at 6:00 P.M., the half-full train left GCT, track 34 for the last time.[2] As always, carnations were given to men and perfume and flowers to women boarding the train.[2] The next day, it straggled into LaSalle Street Station in Chicago 9 hours 50 minutes late due to a freight derailment near Conneaut, Ohio.
    Amtrak now operates the Lake Shore Limited between New York's Penn Station and Union Station in Chicago. Otherwise it follows a route similar to the 20th Century's, except west of Whiting, Indiana (near Chicago), where it switches to the former Pennsylvania Railroad'sPittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway.

  • Empire State Express
  • The Empire State Express was one of the named passenger trains and onetime flagship of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad (a predecessor of the later New York Central Railroad). On September 14, 1891 it covered the 436 miles (702 kilometers) between New York City and Buffalo in 7 hours and 6 minutes (including stops), averaging 61.4 miles-per-hour (98.8 km/h), with a top speed of 82 mph (132 km/h).[1][2]

  • History

    The train soon gained worldwide celebrity, and its route would later stretch to 620 miles (998 kilometers), to Cleveland, Ohio. The Empire State was the first passenger train with a schedule speed of over 52 mph and the first to make runs of 142.88 miles (230 km) between stops (between New York City and Albany: the longest scheduled nonstop run until then).
    The 1893 Guide shows an 8 hr 40 min schedule for 440 miles New York to Buffalo.

    RPO canceled cover from the first streamlined run of the "The Empire State Express".
    On December 7, 1941, the New York Central inaugurated a new stainless-steel streamlined (Budd) train, powered by a streamlined J-3a Hudson (4-6-4) steam locomotive. (Later that day Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese.) Like many long haul passenger trains through the mid-1960s, the "Empire State Express" carried a 60-foot stainless steel East Division (E.D.) Railway Post Office (R.P.O.) car operated by the Railway Mail Service (RMS) of the United States Post Office Department which was staffed by USPOD clerks as a "fast mail" on each of its daily runs.[3] Mail handled by the "Empire State's" RPOs was canceled or backstamped by hand applied circular date stamps (CDS) reading "N.Y. & CHICAGO R.P.O." and the train's number: "TR 50" (eastbound) or "TR 51" (westbound).

    Amtrak

    See also: Empire Corridor
    When Amtrak took over the nation's passenger service on May 1, 1971 it consolidated trains on the New York—Albany—Buffalo corridor into the "Empire Service". Amtrak revived the name, although not the route to match, on January 6, 1974 when it gave names to Empire Service trains. The Empire State Expressreturned as a New York—Buffalo train, numbers 71 and 78. On October 31 that year Amtrak extended the train to Detroit via southern Ontario, Canada. On April 25, 1976 Amtrak renamed this train the Niagara Rainbow. Amtrak brought the name back in 1978 as a New York—Buffalo service, which in 1979 was extended to Niagara Falls. A few years later Amtrak dropped train names on the Empire Corridor.[4]:174



  • Mercury (train)
  • Mercury was the name used by the New York Central Railroad for a family of daytime streamliner passenger trains operating betweenmidwestern cities. The Mercury train sets were designed by the noted industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss, and are considered a prime example of Art Deco design. The success of the Mercury led to Dreyfuss getting the commission for the 1938 redesign of the NYC's flagship, the 20th Century Limited, perhaps the most famous train in America.
    The first Mercury, operating on a daily roundtrip between Cleveland and Detroit, was introduced on July 13, 1936.[1] The Chicago Mercury, between Chicago and Detroit, and the Cincinnati Mercury, between Cincinnati and Detroit, followed.[2] The Mercurys lasted until the 1950s, with the final survivor, the original Cleveland Mercury, making its last run on July 11, 1959.[3]
    A fourth train, the James Whitcomb Riley between Chicago and Cincinnati, used the same design for its train sets and is considered part of the Mercury family, although it did not bear the Mercury name. The Riley debuted in 1941 and lasted into the Amtrak era, though no longer a streamliner.[4][5]

    In the mid-1930s, the New York Central launched an experiment to enhance its passenger traffic in the midwest. The goal was a new streamlined service focusing on speed and innovation. "Mercury," the name of the Roman god of messengers, was chosen for its connotations of speed. The new train was marketed as the "Train of Tomorrow" (not to be confused with the General Motors concept train of the 1940s), reflecting the emphasis on innovation.
    In 1934, Dreyfuss had gained attention for the New York Central with his streamlined design for the Commodore Vanderbilt locomotive.[6] This was his first railroad design; he was best known for his work on consumer products like telephones, fountain pens and vacuum cleaners.[7] In 1935, the Central asked him to take on the new project.
    Here is his description of how the plan developed:
    The final designs were approved ... but when they were put out for bid prices were so out of line that the project was canceled. It was a heavy blow when I received the bad news, for the trains had been a major effort for our office. I decided to take the rest of the day off, and I boarded a train for the country. En route, traveling the railroad yards of Mott Haven, I saw the answer. I got off the train, returned to New York and suggested [to the Central president] that some of the used cars in the yards might be converted. Out of them the successful Mercurys were built at one quarter of the original figure. The Mercurys have been called a turning point in railroad design. They were the first streamliners done as a unit, inside and out, integrating everything from locomotives to dinner china.[8]

    Locomotive and Exterior


    One of the Mercury Hudson locomotives.
    Of Dreyfuss's railroad designs, the locomotives got the most notice, so much so that his work on passenger cars is often overlooked entirely.[9] For the Mercury, he achieved a streamlined appearance by covering the exterior pipes, whistles, and other fittings in a smooth "bathtub" cowl. The sides of the cowl were cut away to show the driving wheels.
    "The ... drivers sported centers painted in aluminum with a black band separating the aluminum discs from the aluminum rim and tire. Dreyfuss had installed three 50-watt and two 15-watt lamps under the cowling on either side to illuminate the drivers and rods. The effect at night was most striking.[10][11]
    It has been said that, "As opposed to [some of his] contemporaries, Dreyfuss was not a stylist: he applied common sense and a scientific approach to design problems."[12]However, it can be seen from his treatment of the driving wheels that Dreyfuss was not above paying close attention to merely stylistic, non-functional details.
    The exterior of locomotive and cars was medium gray with brushed aluminum trim. On each side, the passenger cars displayed the Mercury logo in the form of a silver medallion, showing the god Mercury in traditional representation with winged cap and sandals.[13]

    Interior

    For the Mercury, Dreyfuss, approached the design of the train as an integrated whole, interior and exterior, from the locomotive to the rear observation car. His goal was to recreate the atmosphere of a private club.[14] His primary concern toward that end was to mitigate the rigid uniformity and long, narrow form of the conventional railroad car.[15]
    Although each car was functionally separate, Dreyfuss's design minimized the divisions between cars. He did this partly by having interior sections that spanned car boundaries. For instance, the coach section comprised the rear of the first car, the whole of the second, and the forward part of the third. The kitchen was in the rear of the third, while the dining room was in the following car.
    He also sought to integrate the cars by the design of the vestibules. He made each vestibule semi-circular and widened the passageway between cars to 1.60 meters (5 feet, 3 inches). The intended effect, when cars were coupled together, was of a single circular room, like a miniature rotunda.[16]
    Within cars, Dreyfuss applied several techniques to break up the space and make it less linear. In the second car, for instance, he interrupted the rows of seating by placing two pairs of seats facing each other across the aisle in the middle of the coach section. Similarly, in the sixth, a parlor car, he broke the seating into two sections with a small private compartment, seating six, in between them. The dining room had three sections. Two of them were conventional seating, but the middle section was made up of tables for two people seated side-by-side, facing the center aisle. The dining car also had a small lounge section, seating six, for people waiting to be seated.[17]
    Dreyfuss also applied innovation to the round-ended observation car, a common amenity of premier trains of the time. To maximize the view, he lowered the sills in the observation area by 30 cm (12 inches), allowing 1.23 m (four foot) high windows. Instead of having the seating around the walls, facing in, he placed the seating in the center, facing out towards the windows. There were banquettes for three facing each side, and one for two facing the rear. In an extra touch, a speedometer was built into the center banquette, a reminder of how the Central was marketing speed with the Mercury.[18]

  • New England States
  • The New England States was a passenger train operated by the New York Central Railroad and its successor Penn Centralover the Water Level Route between Chicago and Boston. It was launched in 1938 in tandem with the relaunch of the 20th Century Limited and assumed responsibility for that train's Boston sleepers. In 1949 it became the first Chicago–Bostonstreamliner. The New York Central dropped the name in 1967; an unnamed remnant continued running until 1971. Amtrak'sLake Shore Limited now serves the route.

    History

    The New York Central introduced the New England States on June 15, 1938, coinciding with the relaunch of the Twentieth Century Limited. The New England States was an all-Pullman train which ran from Chicago to Boston via Toledo and Albany. With the launch of the New England States the Twentieth Century Limited ceased carrying sleepers for Boston.[1] In 1949 the New York Central purchased new streamlined equipment from the Budd Company for the train at the cost of $3.5 million. Once so-equipped the New England States became the first Chicago–Boston streamlined train.[2]
    Following the Second World War the New England States gradually diminished along with the rest of the New York Central's passenger fleet. The train lost its all-sleeper status in the summer of 1949 with the addition of coaches; the New York Central withdrew its observation car in 1956.[3] In 1954 a typical eastbound train carried Boston-Chicago and Buffalo-Chicago sleepers, while its westbound counterpart carried Chicago-Boston sleepers and a Pittsburgh-Boston sleeper which it picked up from the Pittsburgh-Buffalo Express in Buffalo.[4][5] "Sleepercoaches", economy sleepers known elsewhere asSlumbercoaches, were added in 1959. The New York Central consolidated the eastbound New England States and thePacemaker, a Chicago-New York train, on April 30, 1961.[3] On November 5, 1967 the New York Central consolidated theNew England States and Twentieth Century Limited west of Buffalo, a precursor to the latter's discontinuance one month later. In a major restructuring of passenger services the following day, December 3, the New England States lost its name (becoming known just by its numbers, 27/28) and began running with a mixed consist of coaches and sleepers between Chicago and New York/Boston.[6]
    The New York Central merged with its long-time rival the Pennsylvania Railroad on February 1, 1968 to become the Penn Central. On March 10, 1970, the Penn Central petitioned to end the former New England States, along with all other trains on its route.[6] The passage of the Passenger Rail Service Act interrupted these proceedings, and the former New England States remained running until the start of Amtrak on May 1, 1971, when it was discontinued.[7] Amtrak revived direct Chicago–Boston service in 1975 with the Lake Shore Limited, which continues to provide service over the route.[8]

  • Ohio State Limited
  • The Ohio State Limited was a named passenger train operated by the New York Central Railroad (NYC) between New York City and Cincinnati, Ohio. Service began in 1924 and continued until 1967, with some vestiges remaining until 1971.
    NYC began the Ohio State Limited on April 27, 1924. The new service departed Grand Central Terminal at 3 PM, just after the20th Century Limited, with a scheduled arrival in Cincinnati of 9:30 AM the following morning. A section of the train split atCleveland, Ohio to serve Toledo, Ohio, while the Boston & Albany Railroad exchanged through cars for Boston, Massachusetts at Albany, New York. The train used the Big Four route between Toledo and Cincinnati.[1] In 1941 the Ohio State Limited began receiving lightweight streamlined equipment, becoming part of the NYC's famed "Great Steel Fleet." The train was fully re-equipped with lightweight equipment by 1949.[2]:146–147 Its chief postwar rival was the Pennsylvania Railroad's Cincinnati Limited.[3]:31
    In the late 1950s the Ohio State Limited was one of several NYC trains to receive the new sleepercoach economy sleeping cars in a failed attempt to revive flagging business.[4]:124 In the early 1960s the Ohio State Limited ran combined with the New York-St. Louis Southwestern Limited between New York-Cleveland as a cost-saving measure. The end came on December 2, 1967, when NYC eliminated all named trains in anticipation of a transition toward short-haul corridor services.[3]:32 The last remnant of the Ohio State Limited was a rump coach trip between Cleveland-Cincinnati, often running with a single car. This remained the case after the Penn Central merger and survived until Amtrak took over most passenger services on May 1, 1971, when it was discontinued.[5]:32

  • Twilight Limited
  • The Twilight Limited was a named passenger train in the United States which initially operated between Chicago, Illinois, andDetroit, Michigan. The New York Central Railroad introduced the train in 1926, and it continued until the formation of Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) in 1971, although it lost its name in 1967. Amtrak renamed the train St. Clair, feeling that the name "Twilight Limited" had undesirable connotations and imagery for a company trying to save passenger rail service. Amtrak revived the name in 1976 for a new train frequency on the Chicago–Detroit corridor, and kept the name until all trains on that corridor were renamed Wolverine in 2004.

    History

    New York Central

    The New York Central Railroad introduced the Twilight Limited on April 25, 1926. The new train was first-class only, with parlor cars and a dining car. It was the fastest of the 13 New York Central (Michigan Central) trains from Chicago to Detroit, leaving Central Station at 3:00 PM and taking six hours for 283.5 miles to Detroit.[1]:95 After the Second World War the Twilight Limited gained coaches, but kept some parlor cars and its dining car. Service on the Chicago-Detroit route continued to drop, from seven trains each way in 1951 to five in 1960. The last parlor car came off in the mid-1960s. As part of a massive restructuring the New York Central dropped all train names on December 3, 1967, although the ex-Twilight Limited still ran. Penn Central (the merged New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroad) truncated the westbound ex-Twilight Limited at Ann Arbor, Michigan on October 5, 1968.[1]:96Amtrak kept the eastbound ex-Twilight Limited (No. 356), but renamed it the St. Clair.[2]:194

    Amtrak

    By mid-1976 Amtrak had three round-trips on the Chicago-Detroit corridor; these were all named Turboliner after the French-designed gas turbine RTG trainsets which operated on the route. Demand outstripped the trainsets' fixed capacity of 292, so Amtrak began assigning new conventional Amfleet equipment as it became available. On October 31, 1976, the evening pair of trains (#354/#355) became the Twilight Limited. This service pattern remained mostly uninterrupted until 1994, although budget problems led to the westbound Twilight Limited running tri-weekly (Friday-Sunday) between 1986 and 1990. On May 5, 1994 Amtrak extended the Twilight Limited and Wolverine to Pontiac, Michigan. In 2000, as part of its Network Growth Strategy Amtrak proposed extending the Twilight Limited to New York City, New York via Ontario, Canada and Buffalo, New York, bypassing Detroit. The last Michigan-Ontario-New York had ended in 1979 when Amtrak discontinued the Niagara Rainbow. Nothing came of this proposal, although for a time the Twilight Limited terminated at Detroit and handled additional mail and express business. On April 26, 2004 Amtrak dropped individual names on the Chicago-Detroit corridor and the Twilight Limited (along with the Lake Cities (Amtrak train)) became one of three Wolverines.[2]:197-201[3]

  • Xplorer (United States)
  • The Xplorer was a named train of the New York Central Railroad (NYC), between Cleveland, Ohio and Cincinnati, Ohio. The Xplorer was an attempt by the NYC to modernize rail travel in Ohio and lure people out of their cars. The train was built by Pullman to their lightweight Train-X design, and was powered by a Baldwin RP-210 Diesel-hydraulic locomotive.
    The train consisted of nine, short, all-aluminum cars articulated together. The center car had two axles (one at each end), with the remaining cars having a single axle each, being supported by adjacent cars at the end opposite the axle. The ride was rough, as with most of the other lightweight trains of the period, and the train was not a success.[1]
    The train was retired in 1960, and was sold to Jones Tours, for excursion service. After a long period of storage in South Carolina, the train and locomotive were scrapped around 1970.[2]
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